We bought a PUB for less than the cost of a keg of beer – it looks like a dump now but we’ll be sipping pints any day
VILLAGERS fuming at the loss of their local boozer have clubbed together to buy it – for less than the cost of a keg of beer.
They each chipped in a minimum £250 to save the stricken 200-year-old Black Lion in tiny Skelton-on-Ure, North Yorkshire.
The historic pub had been mothballed and shuttered for more than four years leaving locals with a four-mile round trek to the nearest watering hole.
Around half of the village’s 350 residents now own the pub as shareholders after raising more than £260,000 and securing a similar-sized government grant.
Shares in The Black Lion – which only has the letters ‘AC’ and ‘IO’ still hanging on its sign – have also been bought from as far away as France, America and Australia.
Sandy Delf, 63, who has lived in Skelton-on-Ure for 20 years, said: “The village lost the pub, and then the school and the shop’s not been open.
“So it’s been very depressing. A lot of surrounding villages have lost their pubs and become dormitories.
“There’s nowhere for people to go. A lot of people come to the village and there’s nothing here.
“We’ve had a pop-up pup in the village’s reading rooms – but it’s not the same.
“We’ve missed our quiz nights and just having somewhere we can meet up.”
Deprived of a village pub, locals had to traipse to the Fox and Hounds in neighbouring Langthorpe – two miles away along a single track country lane.
Sandy added: “The community rallying together and getting control of it is just brilliant.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do but there’s a real spirit to get the job done.”
Hazel Russell, 58, is among an army of volunteers now tasked with revamping the rickety pub.
She said: “The pub closed four years ago and every time a letter fell off the wall, your heart sank.
“First it was ‘The Black ion’, then the ‘lack ion’ – now it’s just the ‘ac in’.
“It’s been abandoned for years so it’s not in great shape.
The pub closed four years ago and every time a letter fell off the wall, your heart sank.
Hazel Russell
“The flat roof had leaked quite extensively so the carpets in half the pub were sodden and squelching, and even growing mushrooms.
“The kitchen was abandoned like someone had left in the middle of making their dinner. There was food in containers that was mouldy.
“The ceiling had collapsed in parts upstairs and it looks like dry rot might have set in. So we’ve got lots and lots of work to do.
“We’ve all chipped in what we can. We’ve told people that every penny counts, it doesn’t matter how little – it all helps.
“We need more shareholders to come forward if we can.”
The cheapest pint in the UK
BY JONATHAN ROSE
A PUB is selling the “cheapest pints” in the UK for as little as £2.30 – almost half the average cost.
The Waggon and Horses in Oldbury, West Midlands, is flogging all beers, ciders and ales for £2.90 and under to encourage punters to drink in traditional local boozers.
Although other places have previously slashed the cost of one or two brands to lower, customers reckon nowhere can be beaten on price for their entire drinks selection.
The old-fashioned Black Country pub said it wanted to “give back” to locals with bargain beer while many people struggle during the cost of living crisis.
A pint of Stella will now set you back just £2.80, while Carling, Coors and John Smiths is £2.40 and a pint of Thatcher’s Gold is £2.30.
The average cost of a pint in the UK is now over £4 for the first time – at £4.58, compared to £2.30 in 2008 during the last recession.
And a pint in London’s West End can top £9 while one in ten taverns sell at between £6-£6.99 and 40 per cent ask the average of £4.58.
Leaseholder Matthew Porter said: “I’ve had this pub for seven years, and it’s a proper locals pub. It deserves to be busy every day.
“There are multi-million pound companies either side of us who are putting their prices up and we’re putting ours down to say ‘come and drink with us’.
“In this day and age you have to think a bit outside of the box. We just looked at how low we could cut our prices while managing to survive.
“As long as we pack the place out all day, every day, we should be able to pay the bills and people get cheap beer so it keeps everyone happy.”
More than 500 British boozers closed their doors for the final time last year.
Crippling taxes and inflation meant the total number of closures since 2017 hit 3,043.
And last year alone, 6,000 people lost their job as a result of boozers having to shut down.
Mike Ramshaw, 48, and his wife Wendy, 48, were among villagers to sign up for shares.
He said: “Every village should have a local. We keep going to other pubs for Sunday lunches – we want that in our village.
“Since the pub closed, it’s really, really, hard to meet people unless you have a dog.
“The pub will be the perfect place to meet new people in the village, over a pint or a coffee.
“In the past, The Black Lion hosted all sorts of things like darts, pool nights, family get-togethers – it’s slap bang in the centre of the village and everyone used to use it.
The community rallying together and getting control of it is just brilliant.
Sandy Delf
“The local shop has just closed and the school has just closed – so we had to save something.
“We’ve really galvanised the community spirit to put the roar back in The Black Lion.
“Hopefully there will be Sunday lunches, which is what everyone wants.
“It’ll be a free house, too, so we have a lot more choice of the beers we can serve.”
The locals, working as a Community Benefit Society Group, hope to have the pub open by the end of year.
The group’s bid for funding was assisted by The Plunkett Foundation, an organisation which has helped set up dozens of community pubs in the UK.
Thanks to The Sun’s Save Our Sups campaign, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that alcohol duty would remain frozen until next year.